JACOB Weitering spoke to media on Tuesday morning to not only discuss Sunday’s loss, but also answer the key questions leading into the weekend.
The co-vice captain spoke on the need to move ahead and ensure Sunday’s loss wouldn’t become a pattern of behaviour: this is what he had to say.
On the wash-up from the weekend’s game:
“We haven’t reviewed it yet, it’s our first day in at the Club. We got in quite early on Monday morning, and I think the boys needed to rest and recover.
“Today, we’ll go through the review and do some recovery. There’s a fair bit to go through.”
On the overriding emotion following Sunday’s loss:
“Very disappointed.
“It’s a tough one because it hasn’t been a pattern of ours. We’ve played six matches including pre-season, and that’s the first performance across four quarters where we haven’t been able to produce what we wanted to.
“Going into the review, we’ll go into a few things. There were things on offence and defence, inefficiencies all over the ground: we’ll certainly look through that.
“We look ahead to Port Adelaide, who are winless and will be coming out pretty tough and hard as well.”
On learning form a loss:
“‘Vossy’ has been quite vocal in the media about how it’s nice to learn with four points in the pocket, but we’ll be learning without four points in the pocket this week.
"It’s a little bit humbling, but full credit to Gold Coast. They came out bloody tough and took it to us in the contest. There’s a little bit of disrespect towards them: they played a great brand of football and challenged us where our strengths lie and they got it done.”
On if ‘reality term’ is too strong of a term:
“I think it is. It’s not a pattern of ours. We’ve had a strong pre-season, we’ve got some really good values and consistency with the way we’ve been training and playing.
“We’ve had three wins on the trot and were against a team that is mid-table or bottom eight at the time: they were challenged and they did a job on us.”
On Patrick Cripps’ hamstring injury:
“We got in early yesterday. I assume he would’ve had the scan and will be assessed this morning. I’m sure there’ll be some news this afternoon.
“He came onto the field after the game. He’s captain for a reason: he’s an incredibly positive guy and was getting around to most of us, checking in.
“He does leave a void: he’s our captain. It’s going to be tough without him for a couple of weeks, whatever it might be, but the boys will get a job done.”
On the midfield stepping up:
“I’m fully confident in our midfield. It is tough to make the change in-game. We saw with Sam Walsh and Adam Cerra out in consecutive weeks that we were able to fill the void and get the job done.
“It is a strength, our midfield. We got beat last week in the middle, but centre-bounce clearances are one of our strengths and I’m sure someone will step up.”
On the upcoming Port Adelaide challenge:
“There’s a bit of memory going back to last year, playing against them in Adelaide. We were two goals up halfway through the second quarter and then they kicked 19 straight.
“We won’t be taking them lightly. We certainly need to make a response this week. They’ll come out hard and I’m certain they’ll be training hard, so no liberties.”
